Runner2: Who Says You Can’t Buy Friends?

After the launch of Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, many of our fans asked us if we had any sort of plans for DLC. As you can imagine, we were thrilled to see that people wanted the game’s experience to extend beyond when the final credits rolled. Quite honestly, it’s one of the best compliments a developer can receive.

While brainstorming possible ideas for extra content, we came up with the idea of releasing a pack of characters plucked from other video games. It was a neat enough concept, but the success of it depended upon the awesomeness of the characters we ended up including in the bundle.

This required a lot of brainstorming on our end — including some crazy ideas we had that didn’t quite work out — but in the end we feel as though we assembled the most amazing crew of characters to ever grace a single video game. We might be biased in our saying so, however.

In any case, the DLC in question is known as the Good Friends Character Pack, and it introduces Raz (Psychonauts), Quote (Cave Story), Josef (Machinarium), Dr. Fetus (Super Meat Boy), Spelunky Guy (Spelunky), and Invisible CommanderVideo as playable characters in Runner2.

This, to us, was the perfect assortment of characters to include in our game. We’re friends with all the developers in real life, so it stands to reason that our characters could be Good Friends, too.

Although it may sound like an easy enough to task to release new playable characters for a game, it was actually quite a bit of work on our part. We recreated each of the characters from scratch, and the end result was crisp, awesome-looking 3D models of each and every one of them.

We also made an effort to provide each character with the traits and abilities that their fans would expect of them. Dr. Fetus, for example, uses Bandage Girl as a shield.

Now that we’ve provided you with a bit of the backstory, here are some quick details about the Good Friends Character Pack:

It will run you $3

It should be in your hands very soon UPDATE: It hits PlayStation Store today, July 16th!

No new levels are included (sorry!)

It will indeed be available for the Vita version when it ships

We created awesome backstory videos for each character, narrated by the one and only Charles Martinet

We’re currently discussing in the office what a burger with pizza for buns would taste like

That last bullet point was irrelevant, but it felt important enough to share. Anyhow, let us know if you have any questions in the comments and we’ll be sure to answer them for you!

What happened to Atlas from Portal 2 and the Invisible Commander Video? They were included in the same DLC on the PC version of Runner 2, and considering they both cost the same amount of money, it feels like a slap in the face to not get all of the characters, despite paying the same price.

Invisible CommanderVideo will be included! As for Atlas, we originally had the fun idea of offering him as a playable character on every platform. However, as we drew closer to release, we realized that wasn’t quite feasible.

I’ve played this at E3, and I loved it. It was challenging, yet fun. Is this game cross buy? Also it would be cool to add Sackboy as a character down the road. Some of the 1st party characters would really be cool.

im looking forward this game on the PS Vita ..then i shall cough up the money for the character skins. Also why not add new levels? just seems kinda lazy on your end. :/ And probably a new mode..where its more of a OPTION to run rather than AUTOMATICALLY RUNNING…its been awhile since I’ve played a nice 2D/3D platformer on the Vita , well besides Guacamelle..now that game is AMAZING! Hope to see a part 2 really soon with some new modes as well..like a wrestling mode or something :p

This DLC should be included with the Vita version at no extra cost once it ships, to make up for the wait. I’m dying to play this game on my handheld! Could play it right now on PC or PS3, but I’m waiting. Hopefully, not for too long!

A burger with pizza for buns would be a meat calzone. You can go to a pizza shop and reach the conclusion on if it tastes good or not. Then you will have time to finish up that Vita version I am waiting for. :-)

Given that your name is “FriedConsole,” I’m inclined to trust your food expertise.

And we’re hard at work on the Vita version! We’re hoping to include pizza bun burger support, but we need to do some focus testing before we’re sure as to whether or not the world is ready for something so incredible.

Uh oh, “late summer early fall?” Whatever the reason for the delay on the Vita version, you’re leaving money on the table, interest has “passed-peak.” Personally, I’m a little impatient and this waiting is starting to disappoint me. I’m tired of keeping money in my PSN wallet aside for it when it could go towards good games that are here and now.